Chapter Ten #2
“Did she believe you?”
Wes laughed softly. “After we talked, or let me say, after I talked, for about then minutes. I mean, you can’t really blame
her because most people who get close to the two of you . . . um . . .”
“Probably think that I have the right to deck her?” Jeff suggested, grinning.
“Maybe. If it makes you feel any better, Chloe doesn’t like the way that she talks to you. She told me once that she’d never
be like that with me because she knows that I’d be out of the house in a flash.”
“You think I should leave her?” Jeff asked.
“I told you. I don’t think anything. Your marriage is your business.”
“Yeah. And the internet and social media and promotion and cybersecurity and all that . . . Well, that’s our business, too,
and Celia knows what she’s doing with it,” Jeff said.
Wes grinned. “Hey, you didn’t order your drinks.”
“Oh, yeah. She wants something frilly. You know, something fruity with a little umbrella in it.”
“They’re doing blackberry margaritas that look good.”
“But you ordered beer.”
“I don’t need a frilly umbrella,” Wes said, grinning.
Jeff groaned, showed his premiere badge, and ordered the blackberry margaritas Wes had suggested.
Luckily, the drinks were met by Celia with an expression of pleasure. She thanked Jeff and looked at Chloe and said, “These
are so pretty!”
“They are pretty,” Chloe agreed.
“And you don’t want to try—”
“I learned years ago that I’m fine on beer!” Chloe told her. “Too much hard alcohol and I get the worst headaches! I can admire
from afar!”
“Oh, look, there are Edward, George and, of course,” Celia said, giggling, “Sally! She does have a serious crush on our man.”
“Hey, Edward doesn’t seem to mind,” Wes pointed out.
“True. I guess I was just thinking . . .” Celia broke off and started laughing. “I guess with a man of Edward’s power and
position, I thought he’d have a pretty young thing, table-dressing on his arm.”
“Hey, we all like what we like,” Jeff said.
Celia turned and smiled at her husband. “And very lucky for me, you like strong women who stand up for themselves!” she declared. “And, okay, so perhaps just a little bit waspish!” she added while making a face and drawing laughter from Wes, Jeff and Chloe.
“And what’s going on here?” Edward asked as he walked up on their group, George and Sally behind him.
“We’re explaining love, what makes the world go round!” Chloe told him.
“Oh, nice. I didn’t know it could be explained, even by the most advanced internet searches out there!” Edward said. “Um,
I’m seeing towels on these chairs. I was hoping—”
“I put them there, especially for you!” Chloe assured him. “I’m not sure I’m supposed to save that many chairs, but I considered
our entire dinner group so yes, of course, Edward, three are for you! And those right there are for Amelia if she comes out,
and I see Daniel and Broderick over at the bar, so . . .”
“And there’s Broderick, looking over at us!” Edward said. He waved at Broderick and pointed to a few of the chairs. “Chloe,
thank you! How nice that you thought to do this for all of us!”
“Well, I lied a little!” Chloe told him. “I told the towel guy that you’d specifically asked for these chairs and Edward,
you’re kind of a big deal on this cruise!”
“Aw, that’s not using someone, my dear, that’s playing it smart!” Edward announced. He looked at George and Sally and asked,
“What can I get you? These folks have their drinks—frilly and not—and I believe I will have something myself. George, I know
you’re on duty—”
“Sir, you are as kind as can be, but I’ll take a soda!” George said.
“There’s Amelia!” Celia said, waving wildly so that she’d be seen. “Here she comes! We can see what she’d like to have before
you head to the bar!”
Amelia was on deck; she’d been looking around but saw their group, waved in return and made her way toward them.
“This is so cool! Perfect seating!” Amelia said, joining them. She had a terry throw on over her bathing suit, but quickly
tossed it aside, opening her arms to the sky. “What a day, what a beautiful day! Perfect to be out here—in this perfect seating!”
“Well, we can thank our perfect married couple for that!” Edward said, grinning. “Chloe and Wes got here first and found these seats for us. Just in time!
The place is beginning to fill up! So, Amelia, I’m making the bar trip. What can I get you?”
Amelia and Sally opted for the pretty blackberry drinks. “I’ll head over with you and help you!” Amelia told Edward.
“Great! I can’t stand it a minute longer. I’m hopping in the water—and look! The pool is almost empty. I can get in a few
unhampered laps if I get in right away,” Sally said.
The woman evidently did exercise. Out of her cover-up, she was still attractive and even younger-looking for her age than
usual. Wes figured that she was a determined person—determined to keep up with her physical activity for her health as well
as for her looks.
She headed to the water.
“I’m going to hop in, too, I think,” Chloe murmured. “The water does look wonderful.”
“That it does!” Wes agreed.
He lowered his head for a moment, remembering his quick stroll out on the deck in the middle of the night.
He could still swear that he’d heard a strange splash. But if so, so what?
What the hell could the splash have meant?
Maybe someone had gone in when the pools were officially closed for the night, a teenager determined on doing their own thing.
A drunk adult or someone who just didn’t care about the rules?
He wasn’t sure why it still bothered him so much and he knew he needed to appear chill with the rest of the group. He spread
his towel out on the lounger by Chloe, smiled as he stretched out on it beside her, reaching out to run his fingers along
her arm, just like a loving husband might do.
He found himself smiling. It was odd . . . he could imagine spending all his time with her.
More intimate time . . .
But as his thoughts veered where they shouldn’t go, he realized that Chloe was suddenly sitting up.
“Hm, I just watched Sally do one of her laps and now . . . now I don’t see her,” Chloe murmured.
“There is the possibility that she hopped out to use the ladies’ room,” Daniel said, shaking his head at her worry.
But Chloe stood, looking out over the water.
Then she stood, frowning, and headed slowly toward the water, looking around.
Wes jumped up, as well.
“My lord, you people are worrywarts!” Broderick commented.
“Yeah, dumb, I know, but . . .” Chloe murmured.
Then she was gone. Looking at the others and lifting his hands, Wes stood and headed after her.
When he reached the side of the pool, she was already in the water.
And then he saw why.
Sally had not hopped out to go to the ladies’ room. She was at the bottom of the pool by the drain, and it appeared that . . .
The drain was sucking water inward, when and where it shouldn’t have been. And Sally was fighting to free herself from the
suction.
Chloe was headed to her, grasping the woman around the waist, trying to drag her away from the suction.
Wes dimly heard a whistle blowing from outside the water; the lifeguard had seen what was happening. He would be in the water
in seconds . . .
But how long has Sally been without air?
None of it mattered because he had already headed down himself. And grasping Chloe in a life-saving hold, he managed to wrench
both women away from the drain and spring to the surface even as the lifeguard appeared, ready to take Sally from his hold
and get her quickly to the side of the pool.
At first, Wes feared she wasn’t breathing.
But even as the young lifeguard moved to begin his lifesaving techniques, Sally coughed and sputtered, sending a spray of
water over all of them.
She sucked in a deep gasp of air, opening her eyes, staring at them all incredulously.
“What the hell?”
By then, of course, the lifeguard had been joined by others belonging to the ship’s crew; the pool had already been cleared
and now they were asking the guests to please leave this area until the problem could be solved; the other pool remained open
and they were beset now with a mechanical problem that had to be investigated and cleared as quickly as possible.
Always on board, the safety of the passengers was the most important element of any cruise!
George Garcia had momentarily left his charge, hurrying over to make sure Sally was all right, but Sally was a trouper.
She was already reaching for Wes’s hand to rise, thanking him, thanking Chloe effusively, then turning to assure George that she was fine.
“Sally, you came close to drowning—” George told her.
“I sure know how to hang around the right people!” Sally said lightly, looking at the young lifeguard and assuring him. “I
know, young sir, that you would have been there in seconds, too, and I’m just fine and I don’t want to ruin the cruise—”
“Ma’am,” the lifeguard told her solemnly, “I can’t begin to tell you how grateful we are that you’re fine, but now you surely
understand that such a thing should have never happened, and we must investigate and make sure we’re not going to put any
other passengers in danger! And thank you for being so amazing. We’ll file an incident report, of course, and due compensation
will be made—”
Edward had made his way to them by then, apparently pushing his way through the crew personnel emptying the deck area by insisting
that he was “family.”
“You can sue, that’s what the young man means!” Edward told her. “Sally, Sally, are you really all right? You poor thing!
It was all so fast, we barely saw what was happening and . . .” He paused, looking at Wes and then Chloe. “These guys! They
do see everything, they seem to be . . . Wow! You two should be sainted! That’s the second life you’ve saved!”
“Others would have done the same. We just happened to see that there was a problem with the drain and the suction!” Chloe
told him quickly. “And you know—”
“Right. College lifeguard,” Edward said, looking at Wes.
Wes shrugged. “As long as ‘all’s well that ends well!’” he quoted.
“I still want my frilly drink!” Sally said, grinning. “Um, maybe not at the pool. I was thinking of heading to my cabin and then maybe to that lovely little deck bar just below us! So, I do think I’ll shower quickly—”
“I’ll head there, too,” Edward told her, smiling. “Though—”
“We’ll still need to file an incident report,” the lifeguard told him.
“Naturally,” Wes said, feeling sorry for the young lifeguard, a man who couldn’t have been more than mid-twenties. He’d probably
never expected he’d be doing more than cleaning cocktail glasses out of the pool or clearing his throat and telling adults
that intimacy was for the cabins, not by the water.
Chloe looked at Wes.
And he knew that she was thinking about the night before.
About the fact that he’d thought he’d heard something in the water.
“So, let’s do it, huh? Get that incident report going so that we have something of the afternoon and evening left!” Wes said.
“Okay, so a few of us are a bit wet, but plenty of towels around here! Let’s do it.”
“And,” Sally said, smiling and setting a hand gently on the young lifeguard’s arm, “I don’t sue people. Something wacky happened
here, but I’m fine! Everything is fine!”
“Sally! At the very least, let them get you on another of their great cruises for free!” Edward said.
Sally laughed.
Wes saw that they had emptied the area; the only other people visible were crew members. The pool, the bar and the deck area
had been quickly cleared and closed.
Edward and Sally and George were with them.
But the others . . .
Amelia, Daniel, Broderick, Celia and Jeff . . .
All gone. Naturally. They didn’t have Edward’s power or determination to get close to Sally and make sure that she was really all right.
If that was what they had wanted?
But how the hell can we tell who might have been in the pool, who might have gotten caught up in the suction of the faulty
drain?
Does it matter who it had been?
Or was Sally jumping into the pool so quickly something they hadn’t counted on?
Had the intended victim been someone else?
One thing appeared to be true.
No matter where you were when something happened, there was always going to be paperwork.